“Every one of us is given the gift of life, and what a strange gift it is. If it is preserved jealously and selfishly, it impoverishes and saddens. But if it is spent for others, it enriches and beautifies.” – Ignazio Silone

Amidst the news media’s usual focus on global conflict and local tragedy, the coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to America has been an uplifting bright spot. Whether you are of a different faith or even no faith, I’m sure you are among the millions who admire this powerful man’s obvious humility, compassion and courage to speak up for others who have no voice.

Each of us knows someone in need of help, be it emotional comfort, belief in themselves, compassionate forgiveness or material assistance. Francis’ simple, straightforward words and compassionate actions remind us of our duty to do all we can for others, using our own individual talents and resources.

Besides making you feel wonderful, advancing others brings MORE good into your own life by putting the Law of Attraction (“energy attracts like energy”) into powerful action. One of Joel and Victoria Osteen’s daily inspirational messages entitled “Sow Success” explains this beautifully:

“God has a system in place in order to bless you and it works on the principle of sowing and reaping. What you pour out to others will come back to you in increased measure. When you give generously, a generous harvest will return to you. When you help others succeed, you will find abundant success on your own path, too.

There are people in your life who hold the keys for you to reach your full potential. These are people that God has placed in your life for you to help along. The higher they rise up, the higher you will rise up, too. When you give generously of your time, talent and resources, you are setting yourself up for greater success.

What are you doing to invest in the lives of people around you? Are you helping others get ahead? Step out and sow a seed. Look for ways to help others. As you sow success, you’ll reap success and move forward into the abundant life He has in store for you!”

As a Personal Success Coach, I am fortunate that my day job is to help others succeed. And I am doubly blessed to have a number of clients who, in their own way, are also in the business of helping others reach their dreams. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than to give someone the powerful manifestation tools I have been taught, and then watch them pay it forward to help others succeed. While attending their network marketing company’s annual convention recently, two of my clients eagerly seized opportunities to bless others by using the tools I had given them.

The first is a full-time schoolteacher who took time off from her day job to go to the convention. Although none of her Teammates chose to attend, she did not feel “alone” because she focused on learning how to be more effective in her business and on connecting with other positive people there from all parts of North America.

She had a wonderful time and came home with a stronger belief and determination than ever to reach out to everyone she knew and let them know about her company’s products that create healthy, beautiful skin and business opportunity that can bring them financial freedom, if they want that.

The minute she got home, she left messages for three women she had previously reached out to many times with no response. This time, to her amazement, all three called her back right away! One of them explained, “You sounded SO excited, I just had to hear why!” My client and I both believe it was her genuine enthusiasm and desire to help others that drew back an equally positive response.

Another client at the same convention shared how her genuine desire to help others and expecting The Best created a mini-miracle for herself and others: While walking down the hall of the convention center, she said to a colleague, “I need to find someone to support my Team member in Canada. I’m doing all I can for her, but she is struggling. She needs some local support to help her build her confidence.”

Moments later, she came upon two consultants who were sitting on the floor. One of their nametags indicated she was from Canada. The seated consultant smiled, introduced herself and said, “I’m from Calgary.” My client got chills because that is exactly where her struggling Teammate lives! She told the Canadian consultant that she would love to introduce her to her local Teammate and she replied, “Oh, I was just saying to my friend that I am looking for someone in my area to partner with!”

As soon as she got home, the Canadian consultant called my client for her Teammate’s number and the two are now excitedly exploring how they can support each other in growing their businesses and building awareness of their company in that region.

Although they are on different Teams and cannot benefit directly from each other financially, both have everything to gain from supporting each other, just as you and I have everything to gain from helping others, each according to our own unique gifts.

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.

“Life is too short to waste another day angry, offended, in self-pity…The pain of letting go is less than the pain of holding on and missing your destiny.” – Joel Osteen

Everyone has been wronged at some time in their life – either intentionally or unintentionally. It’s human nature to feel wounded, even devastated, by another’s betrayal or injustice. But once you get over the initial shock and sadness, it’s entirely up to YOU what happens next. You can choose to nurture your emotional wounds, or to let it go so you can thrive and prosper.

The Law of Attraction states that “energy attracts like energy.” Whatever you focus on and send energy toward will expand and grow stronger. Therefore, if you nurse a grudge, you are doing self-inflicted damage by sending out negative energy to draw back to you MORE opportunities to be mistreated and hurt. My favorite quote on the subject of forgiveness is this: “Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.”

In her wonderful book, The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, Master Manifester Edwene Gaines asserts that all debt is caused by unforgiveness. She says that debt is the last remaining socially-acceptable way of punishing ourselves. If you have significant debt you want to eliminate, Edwene suggests creating a “forgiveness inventory” that lists every last person you need to forgive in your life and then “get about forgiving them.”

Thanks to the Great Recession, my husband and I have personally experienced what it is to face seemingly-insurmountable debt. I took Edwene’s teachings to heart, and worked diligently over time to release all old resentments and blame. I emotionally released all the “debtors” in my life and eventually, many of our own debts were forgiven and our financial opportunities improved greatly. Today, we are debt-free, and I believe that learning to forgive myself and others played a significant role in our financial recovery.

Nevertheless, resentment and blame still try to come calling from time to time. I wrote about my most recent forgiveness challenge in Blog 201, where a client of mine lashed out at me verbally after I tried to hold him accountable for his lack of personal integrity toward working on his goals and keeping his agreements.

I came to what turned out to be our final coaching call ready to clear the air and get back on track. But he came to the call to tell me in detail how awful my treatment of him had been and what a bad coach I was. Even though I realized that he lacked the emotional maturity to openly admit and take personal responsibility for his mistakes, I was caught off guard by his anger. To keep from losing my own emotional control and possibly saying something I would regret, all I could do in that moment was to hang up on him in mid-sentence. That definitely is NOT something I am proud of, so I knew that I had to forgive both myself AND my client.

I quickly wrote him as calm and professional a “goodbye” email as I could muster. While I was still smarting emotionally, my honest intention was not to castigate him, but to give him some productive parting advice. I wrote, in part:

“I had a list of tools I was going to suggest to help you be more successful from here on out, but I didn’t get the chance to share them. First and foremost, I recommend you read The Four Agreements. Secondly, I highly recommend you enroll in the Landmark Forum, which is a weekend-long coaching course that changes lives. You will learn about your ‘stories’ (limiting beliefs about yourself and others), how to forgive yourself and others for the past, how to take 100% responsibility for yourself and how to be your word. I believe the cost is about two months of coaching, but I believe it is PRICELESS.”

He never responded. Nevertheless, to help me release all negative feelings about him so that I could continue to thrive in my OWN life, I added him to my daily prayers for several people I know who are facing serious challenges that are beyond my personal ability to help them with.

Each day that I prayed for my former client’s success and happiness, my hurt feelings softened a bit. After a few weeks, the day finally came when I realized that I didn’t harbor ANY negative feelings, and I knew that I had forgiven him. Then I was able to release him completely to God, trusting that he was being guided on his personal growth journey and that all would be well for him.

Just when I had finally stopped thinking about him at all, he sent me a text out of the blue. It was short and sweet: “Tomorrow is my completion evening for the Landmark Forum. As the person who invited me to take it, I would like you to be there as my guest.”

I was stunned. I hadn’t imagined he would take any further advice from me, let alone invite ME to see him complete a course that obviously shifted his mindset and will likely change his life for the better in many ways! I responded warmly that I would have been honored to come, but had a family birthday celebration to attend that evening. I congratulated him and wished him well in all his future endeavors. He responded that he wished me the same and hoped I had a lovely time at my event.

Learning to forgive him certainly has helped me to thrive in my life, and I believe that his forgiveness towards me will help him to prosper, too. One thing is for sure: Neither of us will be chugging any poison!

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.

“Each of us every day has the opportunity to make a decision as to what energy, words, beliefs and actions we will release into the world. The power lies within.” – Paul Keenan

I am not a big sports buff. Still, every once in a great while, a record-breaking opportunity comes along that makes even us couch potatoes pay attention.

I was glued to the TV set for American Pharaoh’s Triple Crown win because no horse had done it in 37 years. And I have been avidly following Serena Williams’ quest to win the U.S. Open and achieve the first Grand Slam — winning all four tennis Majors in one calendar year — since Steffi Graf did it in 1988.

Serena Williams is as dominant in women’s tennis as Tiger Woods used to be in men’s golf. A powerhouse, both physically and mentally, Serena routinely serves over 120 miles per hour and has a killer forehand AND backhand. She is focused, driven and hard working. That’s why everyone was rooting for her – even her opponents! Everyone in tennis felt she deserved it as the number one female player in the world.

Still, if it were a “done deal,” there would be no excitement to her quest. She blew past most of her opponents, including Venus Williams, who played hard, but was happy that her little sister ultimately prevailed. Serena had just two opponents left to beat and this crowing achievement to her tennis career was hers. And then it happened.

Out of nowhere, a “nobody” Italian tennis player stole the show. Roberta Vinci is a good doubles player with a singles record this year of just 25-20. She has 60 fewer career tour titles and lost all four of their previous matches to Serena. Roberta’s U.S. Open match on Friday was her first-ever semifinal in 44 tournaments and she was the oldest female first-timer there. She, too, thought Serena deserved to win the Grand Slam.

Asked if she had awakened Friday, thinking she had a chance to beat Serena, Roberta said, “No.” After all, the odds makers had Serena favored 300-1. But what was just a routine match for Serena was Roberta’s Shining Moment in the sport she has dedicated her life to. Even if the odds were impossible, she was determined to give it her very BEST effort.

And she did. She played smart and worked hard to chase down every ball. She threw Serena off her stride by hitting more softly and executing perfect half-volleys that only career doubles players can. She broke Serena’s powerhouse serve and held her own for a 4-2 lead in the second set. By then Serena’s body language seemed to lack the usual confidence. Roberta could see that Serena was nervous, and admitted later that when she served her final game, her own hands were shaking.“I make sure to think about relaxing, staying focused,” she said, “and not thinking that it was Serena on the other side of the net.”

In the end, Ms. Vinci had to change her Saturday plane reservation back to Italy, because she beat Serena and will play her final match of the U.S. Open against another Italian, her childhood friend and frequent opponent, Flavia Pennetta.

After the match, Serena was understandably upset and disappointed and gave a short, rather pouty interview. Who could blame her? She summed it up perfectly when she said that Roberta had played “the best tennis of her career” and added, “I guess it’s inspiring. But, yeah, I think she played literally out of her mind.”

We all watched the match because we thought we would see something historic: a once-in-a-generation achievement by an undeniable Superstar. What we saw instead was a much more inspiring achievement by a Rocky Balboa underdog who believed in herself enough to give it her ALL, even when the odds said it was hopeless. She was willing to surprise herself and us.

We can ALL play out of our minds. Each of us has the opportunity at least once in our lifetime to prove that we can dig down deep, give up worrying about what others think or do, and just give it our very BEST effort.

BELIEVE. COMMIT. ACT. That is the “magic formula” for success!

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.